Panorama

Building back with science

With a new Government in place and a new year upon us, Aotearoa New Zealand faces the daunting task of building a fresh and resilient, post-Covid economy. Chief Executive John Morgan looks at the role NIWA can play.

NIWA Environmental Monitoring Technician Evan Baddock gauging the Mararoa River near Te Anau, Fiordland. (Dave Allen)

“I am confident in the power of research to unlock solutions”

John Morgan Our borders remain largely closed and many, particularly in the tourism and education sectors, are still reeling from the impacts of the past 12 months. But the Reserve Bank has also signaled our economy is performing better than expected and vaccines are on order. With a massive public investment programme already underway, the Government is firmly focused on rebuilding our social and economic fabric. Environmental science will play a key role in guiding the transition to a resilient future, and NIWA is prioritising work across our three research platforms to support this recovery. Take, for example, our programmes around the effective management of freshwater resources. Reliable flows are critical to our renewable energy output and they underpin our primary export earnings. Access to future supplies will also determine our ability to develop new growth opportunities. But that growth cannot come at the cost of healthy ecosystems or the taonga species and aquatic values we all cherish. Complex freshwater management decisions, anticipated by September’s national policy statement, lie ahead and they will need the support of robust science. NIWA is working across the sector to find innovative and sustainable solutions to the pressures on our water resources. Researchers are engaged with power companies to understand the competing pressures of user demand and climate change. Hydrologists are developing new models to enable local authorities to better forecast catchment dynamics, and our innovative Irrigation Insight portal literally gives farmers a grass roots view of the benefits of better irrigation decisions. NIWA’s SHMAK toolkit helps communities monitor the health of their own waterways, and our Te Kūwaha team partner with hapū and iwi to support a wide range of freshwater and wetland recovery projects. I acknowledge there is much to do to ensure our freshwater resources are used both more effectively and wisely. In particular, significant work lies ahead in developing better models to understand the complex interactions of both abstraction and land use on waterways. But I am confident in the power of research to unlock solutions and fresh directions, and NIWA is putting our environmental science capabilities firmly behind New Zealand’s post-Covid recovery.